Does anyone have any new ideas for winter hoses? I’ve tried the “pocket hoses”, those expandable things that shrink when the water is turned off, but they haven’t lasted more than 2-3 weeks before they explode. I’ve heard there is a commercial or industrial version, but cannot find a source for them. I’ve also considered a more rigid, coiled hose, but worry that draining it might be difficult and I’ll end up with a frozen hose. Should I bite the bullet and order a heated hose?
I LOVE my pocket hose. I fill super silly admitting that. No signs of exploding after ~2 months of daily use. It’s this one:
http://www.amazon.com/TeleBrands-7809-Pocket-Ultra-Stronger/dp/B00GPULY5Y
This one looks a hell of a lot beefier, though. And 90 day guarantee:
Thanks Simkie. I love them too, but haven’t had good luck with them. I did look at the xhose, but the reviews were fairly bad.
Roll up the hose every night and place in a heated room. Hate Life. Pray for Spring.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7847957]
Roll up the hose every night and place in a heated room. Hate Life. Pray for Spring.[/QUOTE]
STOP BEING PRACTICAL.
Geez, I hope my pocket hose never dies. Dealing with the real hose is so much more of a hassle.
This is interesting:
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7847957]
Roll up the hose every night and place in a heated room. Hate Life. Pray for Spring.[/QUOTE]
This is what I do. Unhook, drain and put in a tote box, then store in trailer, move to heated club house the morning that have to fill tank, take out at evening feed and fill tank. Repeat as needed.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7847957]
Roll up the hose every night and place in a heated room. Hate Life. Pray for Spring.[/QUOTE]
You are absolutely no help!!! 
I keep my hose on a big reel on wheels, and store in the garage, which we heat to keep the hose from freezing. I hate, hate, hate it, dragging it out every day, rolling it back in.Yuck. Oh well, it’ll be spring in 5 months.
I was reading an issue of Equus the other day, the one from January 2014-shhh I am behind haha and there was a product in there that is sort of interesting. It is a heated hose reel.
http://www.pirithose.com/hosereel.php
No idea if it works or not, I could only find like 3 or 4 online reviews for it. Their site also has a lot of heated hoses, etc on it, but I know nothing about them. I would love this heated hose reel if it works because I HATE HATE HATE draining hoses.
We did the cheap pocket hoses last winter and got about a month or 6 weeks out of each one before they died. They were 50’ ones and the barn was 100’ long, so we’d have to move it to different spigots. Replacing them was worth it, compared to having to hassle with dragging the uber heavy rubber hose around, which invariably someone would “forget” to drain or wouldn’t drain properly.
I’d look for one of the better quality pocket hoses and try again, especially if you can find one without plastic hardware. You have to baby them a bit. I wouldn’t leave the water on unnecessarily, and I certainly wouldn’t leave them out where they might get stepped on. I did have the end plastic piece split as I was filling water buckets last year and I got soaked when it was about 0 degrees in the barn. I had just gotten to the barn and started chores and could have murdered someone or something if I wasn’t so cold and shaky! :lol: :mad: I ended up working with a wool cooler wrapped around me. :rolleyes:
I hate winter. Hatey hate HATE. Hate.
I roll mine up in a wheelbarrow and store it in a garage with heat on low. I roll about 100 feet of hose everyday and water 2 barns twice a day. I even have waterproof gloves that I leave on top of the rolled house so not wet hands. Hope this helps
But…but…but…I want an EASIER way to do the winter chores.
I do appreciate some of the hints provided.
We’re in Ontario and had the winter from H*ll last year.
I’ve been using a ‘self-draining’ hose for the past 2 winters and I love it.
Mine is the 50’ and is super light-weight. Once the trough is filled and I unhook it from the tap, the water just drains out as you roll it up. I just hang it on a hook in the feed room.
[QUOTE=twelvegates;7848999]
But…but…but…I want an EASIER way to do the winter chores. [/QUOTE]
Move to Florida? 
We live near Minneapolis/St. Paul so not a warm place. What we
do to fill our stock tank is connect the frost hydrant to a short
hose which in turn is connected to a plastic pipe (like used in
lower cost household plumbing). The plastic pipe is fairly strongly
slanted and runs near the ceiling of our old dairy barn. At the
far end of this pipe is another short plastic hose which empties
into our stock tank.
We connect the first short hose to the frost hydrant, turn on the
water, fill the stock tank and then shut off the water and disconnect the hose (we use quick disconnects to make this easy
but garden hose connectors would work). The water in the pipe
all drains quickly so it doesn’t freeze in the pipe because the
pipe is slanted and allows for a fast draining.
[QUOTE=BCGirl;7848643]
I was reading an issue of Equus the other day, the one from January 2014-shhh I am behind haha and there was a product in there that is sort of interesting. It is a heated hose reel.
http://www.pirithose.com/hosereel.php
No idea if it works or not, I could only find like 3 or 4 online reviews for it. Their site also has a lot of heated hoses, etc on it, but I know nothing about them. I would love this heated hose reel if it works because I HATE HATE HATE draining hoses.[/QUOTE]
Has anybody tried these? I hate winter and I hate draining hoses even more.
Use whatever hose you like.
Go purchase a $29.99 2 gallon wet/dry vac.
Drain hose by either sucking water out of it or set vac to blow and blow water out of it before coiling it again.
Or you can use a $29.99 electric leafblower to blow the hose out nice and dry. 
Same as Mallard
I’ve got this and LOVE IT!!! Surprised my barn mates last year with it and they were in heaven with it too! Super light weight, and drains itself. Just to be safe I would usually just blow air down the hose before I rolled it to get any extra water out. Easily rolls up and fit right in my tack box.
The only catch to it is because it is so light weight you can NOT LET GO of it when the water is running thru it or it will take off like water wiggle toy and spew water everywhere!
I’m going on my third winter of switching to use the X Hose - would never go back to using a normal hose in sub zero temperatures!
The hose normally lasts one winter and then needs to be thrown out… or sometimes replaced mid-winter… but I wouldn’t have it any other way. They aren’t overly heavy duty, so if a horse steps on it you will more than likely be dealing with a hole. The water pressure isn’t as good as a normal hose, but it does the trick.
I can’t stand dealing with frozen/kinked hoses.
